Data Confidentiality in Mobile Ad hoc Networks

Abstract

Mobile ad hoc networks (MANETs) are self-configuring infrastructure-less networks comprised ofmobile nodes that communicate over wireless links without any central control on a peer-to-peer basis.These individual nodes act as routers to forward both their own data and also their neighbours’ data bysending and receiving packets to and from other nodes in the network. The relatively easy configurationand the quick deployment make ad hoc networks suitable the emergency situations (such as human ornatural disasters) and for military units in enemy territory. Securing data dissemination between thesenodes in such networks, however, is a very challenging task. Exposing such information to anyone elseother than the intended nodes could cause a privacy and confidentiality breach, particularly in militaryscenarios. In this paper we present a novel framework to enhance the privacy and data confidentiality inmobile ad hoc networks by attaching the originator policies to the messages as they are sent betweennodes. We evaluate our framework using the Network Simulator (NS-2) to check whether the privacy andconfidentiality of the originator are met. For this we implemented the Policy Enforcement Points (PEPs),as NS-2 agents that manage and enforce the policies attached to packets at every node in the MANET